Do group members download attachements if File Editing = Admins only?

I have a group that I manage and I would like to add a collaborator to the group, but I don't want him to have access to the pdf attachments. I am unclear if a "member" has access to the attachments if the File Editing section in Group->Settings->Library is set to "Only group admins." The description is, "Who can work with files stored in the group?", but I'm unclear what "work with" means.

Are the files downloaded to his computer, or will he only have access to the references? It seems like a legal risk to add people to a group that contains attachments - even a private group - but I kind of need the ability to collaborate without taking that risk.

  • Then why have PDF attachments?
  • My colleagues and I use the database internally as our company library. In this case, the person I'm working with in not in the company. I would like to be able to send him a document and have him be able to add refs from our company library, so that we are all using the same database, but we don't want to start distributing copyrighted material to people just because they happen to do a limited project with us.
  • Okay, clear. That won't be possible for the moment. Members of a group have access to everything (metadata, notes, attachments) in the group.

    I think that a more fine-grained permissions system would actually be very useful, but it is not there yet (see also this thread). One workaround would be to make a new group with a copy of all the items but without attachments, and make your collaborator a member of this group. That is not the most elegant solution, as it duplicates all items. But as long as you and your colleagues have access to that same 'dummy' group, it would work for collaborative citing in a document.
Sign In or Register to comment.